I caught a showing of An Unreasonable Man this afternoon. A lot has been said and will be said about Ralph Nader and the movie— I won’t add more than to note that it’s a great primer for those around my age and younger who know him mostly as a serial candidate, and the Q&A with Nader and filmmaker Henriette Mantel wasn’t near long enough to satisfy the audience.

It was cool to see the Harrisburg area’s resident activist/artist/firefighter/Lieutenant Governor candidate/ex-blogger Gene Stilp on the big screen a few times.

I met Gene briefly on a rainy September day on the steps of the PA Capitol building (I think I was trying to recruit him for the meetup). He was a key figure in the effort to repeal the years illegal legislative pay raise(summarized pretty well here and here). This was a rally held by the coalition of organizations, activists, and talk radio hosts who opposed the raise. Stilp’s touches were the most poetic: a giant pig and enough whistles for everyone.

The noise was glorious.

In the movie’s credits, after all the thanks, he was singled out for a “Special Apology”. I wonder what that’s about?

Update: Steve Skrovan answered my question in the comments of the official movie blog:

> We apologized to Gene Stilp because he was nice enough to give us a large envelope full of documents and pictures that we promised to take care of then promptly lost. Although these were valuable momentos, Gene was very gracious and forgiving.